With his ‘Deoria se dilli kisan yatra’ is just two days away from completion, Rahul Gandhi raised strong voice in support of cane growers. He attacked the successive state governments as well as the Centre for ignoring the interest of the farmers and working for welfare of mill owners or for top 10 industrialists of the country.
“In UP, government had sold sugar mills, and the prime minister is making false claims that all the dues of the cane growers have been met. PM should stop lying and ensure payment to farmers. I will raise your voice in the Parliament and force Modi to listen to it”, asserted Rahul Gandhi while interacting with farmers during Khat Sabha in Shamli and later during road show in Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur on Tuesday.
Stressing the plight of cane growers at Baghra in Muzaffarnagar, Rahul said that both Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav government had ended small crushers just to create monopoly of the sugar mill owners and now they were exploiting the poor cane growers of the state particularly in West UP region. ``Mayawati had sold sugar mills and now Samajwadi Party government is working in the interest of mill owners”, alleged Rahul while saying that decision of successive government had hit the care growers of UP.
He also attacked Narendra Modi on the issue. ``The Job of the PM is to listen to the public and address them to ensure quick relief but Narendra Modi just speaks and never listen anything”, pointed Rahul while alleging that PM had always lied on payment of arrears of the cane growers. He claimed that until the problems of the farmers will be attended and solved, neither the state or the country could stand on it’s feet and progress in any other field. He said, “Modiji keeps talking about ‘Mann ki Baat’, but doesn’t want to listen to Mann ki Baat of farmers”. “Congress is the Party which hears the voice of the people while other Parties only try to gag the voice of the people. This is the main difference between Congress and other parties. We are ready to hear other ideologies too, but other do not,” he said while interacting with farmers in the Khat Sabha. Gandhi said that he was going for such long 2500 kms yatra to put a pressure on the Narendra Modi government to hear the grievances of the farmers. “We only want that the money of the farmers should be given back to them and to the poor,” he added. The three main demands of the Congress `Yatra’ is waiver of the agricultural loan of the farmers, electricity tariff half and rise in MSP.
Rahul claimed that the Congress scheme of MGNREGA has created economic development inside the villages of the country and now Prime Minister himself saying that he won’t stop MGNREGA but would bring out the lapses in the scheme. “I met a few economists and asked them who benefited most from MGNREGA and their reply was `villages’, Gandhi asserted. “Our fight is to ensure that growth reaches everybody particularly to the farmers and poor persons as Congress wanted to see smile on everyone’s face,” he quipped.
``It was only the Congress which always stands behind you during any need, whether it was during Bhatta Parsaul, land acquisition issue or forwarding help to farmers in Bundelkhand”, Rahul asserted while claiming that once again he will take up their (farmers) problems with the PM in the coming Parliament session. Blaming the BJP and other political parties trying to put a spanner when the UPA government was giving the loan waiver scheme, he said,” BJP and other governments said that we are not doing the right thing by given the farmers a loan waiver scheme as it would affect their habit. But we didn’t hear them and the scheme was introduced in a record 10 days time,” he claimed. Even now, if Congress will come to power, the farmer loans will be waived off within ten days. ``If you want to change the fortune of farmers in UP, if you want to give power to the farmers, they elect a Congress government and we will ensure a change in your life”, appealed Rahul while asserting that Congress will continue taking up fight for farmer’s welfare.
Rahul Gandhi also paid tribute to martyr Acchal Yyagi and Major Asharam Tyagi, besides garlanding the statue of Mahamana Madan Mohan Malviya. He also visited Shiv Temple in Shiv Chowk at Muzaffarnagar.